Separation
by Hannan
Summary: No Phantom Planet. Sam asked for a separation from Danny. Now, she's regretting that decision. One shot.


"Mommy, where's Daddy?" Lily asked, her four-year-old face cocked and looking slightly confused. "Is he coming home today?"

Every day it was the same. My little baby would beg to see her father; something I couldn't give to her. My heart was aching as I saw her large blue eyes glimmering with a hope that I had to dash again and again.

"No, sweet heart." I heard my voice say, cracking. "Daddy isn't coming home today." Her face fell. "But," I said, trying to make her happy somehow, "maybe tomorrow."

The public found out that Danny was the ghost guy (when he became an adult, they didn't know what to call him since he wasn't a boy anymore) about a year ago. No one would leave us alone after that. Our whole life changed.

Stress on my life before they discovered the secret was already very high. Not only did I have a new teenager, (Jack turned 13), and a toddler, but also my job and my husband, who was dodging death almost every day. Anyone might go nuts under such pressure!

Then there came the paparazzi. They were everywhere. _Everywhere._ I couldn't get away from them. Danny tried to ask the public to leave us some more privacy, but that just gave the gossip magazines more to talk about. Vlad, in _Wisconsin_, knew about Danny's new haircut before I did. I hate every minute of dealing with the press. They suck. _Out loud_.

So what did I do? I made the stupidest decision of my life. I asked Danny to leave. Not just like, 'Sam needs to clear her head and walk around in the Goth bookstore for an hour and then we're cool again,' but a full out separation. What was I thinking?

I keep thinking about if he's met anyone else. Is he dating someone? Has he already moved on from me? I know I'll never 'move on' from him. A friend from work, Sasha, keeps telling me,

"Sam honey, you are young and you are beautiful. If you ditch the Goth garb and actually try, you could get any man you wanted. Seriously! I wish I had your looks!"

I mostly just ignore that. Danny was my first love. No matter what I try to tell myself, he is the only one that has ever, or will ever for that matter, hold my heart. Before we dated my heart would break without him, and now it's breaking again. Slowly, piece by piece.

Jack came home. "Mom?" He would ask, "Where's Dad?"

Again.

He was waiting for me to tell him, I knew it. It wasn't that I didn't want to level with my kids and quit sneaking around and lying, but I couldn't bring myself to. Just couldn't. So I lied again.

"Out." I keep my back to Jack, knowing that looking at him might set me off. That's another thing. Jack looked like Danny.

Now 14, my boy was slim and lightly muscled. He had his father's semi-tan skin tone and my love's messy ebony hair. It was heart wrenching to look at him and imagine Danny kissing me all that time ago, when things were simpler. The only good thing was that he lacked Danny's piercing, gorgeous eyes. He had mine, instead. Every time I looked at him I'd have to remind myself that Danny's eyes weren't violet. _This is Jack_, I'd tell myself, _my baby boy_.

"Why?" He asked. Oh, even his voice was echoing his father's.

"Because. Maybe he has a ghost to fight." That was one thing I didn't have to fib about anymore. When they were kids, I'd have to lie and tell them that Daddy was somewhere else. Like work or with Tucker.

"Again?"

"Again."

He paused, seizing up my answer. Then I felt two arms encircle my still-tiny waist. "Well, I love you, Mom. Even if Dad's keeping his distance."

I began shaking with tears then. Jack gently turned me around, wiped my hands on a towel, (I had been washing dishes), and hugged me again. I stroked his hair. _Danny_, my mind whispered. "I love you, Jacky." I said, my voice cracking again, just like with Lily.

"Love you more, Mom."

-----------

I don't know why I came here. Jazz just keeps telling me that, as Daniel Phantom, the protector of practically everywhere, I could get any girl I want.

"What kinds of girls are you into, little brother?" She asked, actually taking notes.

I thought for a moment. "Ones with dark, soft hair, large, beautiful eyes, about yea high-"

She gave me a look. "Danny, stop describing Sam. She's done with you, remember? She doesn't love you anymore. Get that through your head." She knocked on my thick skull playfully and I tried to laugh along.

My heart, of course, wasn't in it. Sam was the only girl I've ever loved. We've been together for almost sixteen years, and we have two gorgeous kids together. _I'll never love again_, I think, sighing. My body sags, and Jazz takes this as a sign for desperate measures.

So, she brought me here.

_This is a horrible place_, I think to myself, looking around at the dark, smoky room. _Jazz loves this club_, my mind reminds me, _and this _is _where she met Matt_. Matt is her fiancé. The world is rosy when you're in love. I know.

A blonde girl comes up to me, trying to get me to dance with her. She pulls on my hands, letting her long hair brush my cheek. Her clothes are disturbingly revealing, and I want to leave. I feel like I'm looking at someone else's wife. I probably am.

After being a husband, I know I wouldn't want some other guy looking at my Sam like this girl wants me to look at her. Finally I walk away and go outside. Jazz doesn't even notice. She likes being here with Matt.

The girl, unfortunately, follows me. "Hey," she says, cooing. What am I, a pigeon? "So you're the infamous ghostly protector. I've heard a _lot _about you."

The way she says 'a lot' agitates me.

"Okay?" I ask, not wanting her to be encouraged at all. She's already practically in my arms. I move away again. Too bad I seem to be a magnet to this freak. I have to keep moving to keep her away.

"Don't you want to know my name? Isn't Brittany." She looks at me again. "_Brittany_." Why is she repeating herself?  
"Uh, nice to meet you, Brittany, but I have to be going now." I begin walking to my car.

She's following me again! "But wait!" She calls, running after me. "Can I come with you?"

_The only one I want to come with me is Sam,_ I think. "No."

Her obnoxiously large, overly-blue eyes are imploring me to reconsider. "Please? We'll have fun." Then she grabs my shoulders and pets my hair, slamming her body into my chest. It knocks my breath away.

In my mind, she had turned into Sam. Sam was the only one allowed to pet me like that. Sam was the only one I wanted to pet me like that. So when she kisses me, fast and hard, I forget to pull away immediately. Then I realize that Sam never kissed me so… uncaringly. Like she just wanted to say that she's kissed the Phantom.

Quickly I intangible, slipping into my car and pulling away. _Sorry Jazz_, I think, _this just isn't my kind of place. _

The tears are getting into my way, blocking my vision. My heart is going through a shredder, but I haven't lost all feeling yet. I want to scream! I want to go and punch that girl, hard and fast, just like she kissed me. She stole that kiss from Sam. Sam is the only one I want to kiss. She's the only one allowed to kiss me, anyway.

"She took Sam's kiss!" I yell, into the dead air of my car. The light turns green; I step on the gas and take off. I know where I'm going. I don't care if I'm not wanted there.

"She wanted me to betray my wife!" I scream, not barely concentrating on the road. If I hadn't flown recklessly so many times, I don't think I would have made it in that car.

Suddenly, I realized that I had already betrayed Sam. I was at that club, supposedly looking for a new love. Even if it hadn't been my idea, I had gone. "No," I whisper. "I need Sam."

---------------

I was sitting, glazed, watching Sleeping Beauty (again) with Lily when I heard a car pull up. The driving sounded a bit crazed, too. "I'll be right back, Lily." I say, setting her almost sleeping body gently on the couch.

I open the front door cautiously. What if it were some crazy lunatic? I couldn't let them get at my baby. _Close_, I think, _but it's just Danny. Wait a second_! My mind is screaming at me, _Danny's back_! Flinging the door open, I step out onto the porch.

"Hullo, Sam." He says, running his toe along the ground.

_Kiss me now!!_

"Hi Danny."

His beautiful ocean-colored eyes come up tentatively to mine. The ocean is pitching and turning, though, just like they were when I told him the biggest mistake of my life. "Sam? I want you back."

I watch him, letting him speak. Begging him not to give up and leave. "You do?" I manage to squeak out.

"Yeah. I've been thinking and –"

"-I love you too, Danny!" I squeal and lunge at him. No more playing games. I was done with trying to live on my own; without my husband. "Don't ever leave again; not even if I tell you to. I can't live without you!"

He's holding me, my body suspended above ground, my legs tangled around his waist and legs. Our eyes meet again. Thankfully. But he still looks guilty. "Sam? Will you forgive me?"

"For anything. Just don't leave me again."

The ocean is finally being calmed. We heard a little something behind us.

"Mommy?" Lily asked, her little toothy smile showing, "Is Daddy back?"

I let myself down from Danny's grasp, temporarily, and kneel down to hug my baby. "Yes, angel. He's not leaving us again."

---------

**Author's Notes**: Just something I whipped up last night and just now... I know, I have random writing prompts lol.

**Late Disclaimer**: I don't own Danny Phantom. Obviously.


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